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Annual Reports

Highlights

Energy efficiency continued to be a priority for utilities, states and localities in the Southwest in 2017, thanks in part to the efforts of SWEEP. include:

Electric utilities in the Southwest helped their customers save about 2,400 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year from energy efficiency programs implemented in 2017, equivalent to the electricity use of 230,000 typical households in the region.

Electric utility energy efficiency programs implemented in 2017 will provide households and businesses about $800 million in net economic benefits, while also reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 1.6 million of tons over the lifetime of the energy efficiency measures installed in 2017.

New legislation approved in 2017 will lead to an expansion of utility energy efficiency programs in Nevada and Colorado.

With support from SWEEP, states, cities and counties continued to adopt the 2015 version of International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). As of 2017, the majority of new construction in the region is occurring in jurisdictions that have adopted a state-of-the-art building energy code.

Commercial building benchmarking and disclosure policies advanced in the region in 2017, most notably with Salt Lake City adopting a new benchmarking/disclosure requirement.

The market for electric vehicles is growing rapidly in the Southwest, due in part to policies that SWEEP advocated. In 2017, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona and Utah were among the top ten states with respect to the fastest growing EV markets.

Eight states in the region adopted an agreement to install EV charging stations on all major interstate highway corridors, a concept advocated by SWEEP.

Due in part to the efforts of SWEEP, states in the region are devoting a large fraction of VW Settlement funds to EV charging infrastructure and public transit electrification.